HARTFORD — Community members peppered the School Board with questions about the recent departure of and severance payment to former Superintendent Tom DeBalsi at a special meeting on Thursday night, yet most of the questions remained unanswered.

After signing paperwork related to a $21 million facilities bond, approved by Hartford voters in March, the board spent over an hour responding to comments from the public on the separation agreement with DeBalsi, who left his position at the end of June with a year remaining on his contract.

Just over a dozen people attended in person, and there were additional Zoom attendees.

“The board did what it thought was appropriate when the superintendent requested to resign,” board member Peter Merrill said.

Remaining unclear is exactly when the board voted on the separation terms, and why its members decided to pay a severance of over $200,000 to an employee who broke his contract in a year of budget cuts that impacted student services and programs.

It is “very normal” to offer a severance payment to a long-standing employee of the district, Board Chairman Kevin “Coach” Christie said.

White River Junction resident Jeremy Warren asked if there was any precedent in the Hartford School District for awarding a severance payment to a departing superintendent.

“Not that I’m aware of,” Christie said.

Throughout the public comment period, the board appealed to the need for confidentiality in discussing personnel matters.

“There are some things that cannot be discussed,” board member Nancy Russell said. “People are turning something around to make it a bad thing.”

“It is a bad thing,” Wilder resident and former School Board member Jeff Arnold said. “This money would be much better used to hire back teachers.”

Some residents had questions about the timing of the decision-making process.

The board met previously on June 12, and held an executive session to discuss “the evaluation of a public employee.” The minutes of that meeting note that no decisions were made in that executive session. The next public communication from the board was the July 3 announcement of DeBalsi’s departure.

Wilder resident Geri Williams, speaking via Zoom, asked where she could find the record of the board’s vote on DeBalsi’s separation.

“There is no record because it was done in a confidential session,” Christie said. “The separation agreement was done in private with the board chair and our attorney and Tom’s attorney and Tom. We knew what the parameters were from the board as far as the overall goal, and it was agreed upon by the board.”

Hartford Selectboard member Lannie Collins noted that while a board can have discussions in executive session, any votes need to be made in public session. “There damn well better be some minutes available,” he said.

In its July 12 news release, the School Board noted that the payment of a year’s salary and benefits to DeBalsi was “an appropriate recognition of his service to the district.”

Some speakers were puzzled as to why an award for long-term service required so many lawyers.

“I’m confused. I thought this was an honor to give him the money because he did a good job, but now it sounds contentious,” Arnold said.

Russell reiterated the need for confidentiality but also noted that the board had consulted with its attorney, the secretary of state, and the Agency of Education in considering the separation agreement.

“We consulted with every single person that there is available for us to consult with before we made some of these decisions,” she said. But that disclosure only raised more questions.

“Something’s fishy if you have to talk to the Secretary of State,” Williams said.

Even the purpose for which this special meeting had been called — the board doesn’t usually meet in July — was unclear.

Christie initially said the meeting had been called so that the board could sign paperwork related to the facilities bond.

“In order to move the bond process forward, it made sense to have a meeting,” he said after calling the meeting to order.

He later said that the meeting had been called for the board to vote on Caty Sutton’s appointment as interim superintendent and DeBalsi’s separation agreement. Christie signed the separation agreement on June 30, and DeBalsi on July 2, as witnessed by a notary.

“That was the primary purpose for the meeting today, to formalize those pieces. We do that at each meeting, and that’s why we called a special meeting, to do that,” Christie said.

“The final acceptance of the agreement was done tonight,” Christie said. “All the preliminary negotiation was done privately.”

Several district employees and members of the public pointed out that teachers don’t receive payouts when they retire.

“He’s only been here for 13 years. You have teachers who have been here longer,” said Ann Cerasoli, a White River School kindergarten teacher who has taught in the district for 40 years. “When I finally leave,” she said, “I’ll get a bowl and a thank you.”

Others pointed out that the salary paid to DeBalsi could have mitigated some of the impacts of the budget cuts made this spring.

Voters in April passed a $51 million budget that eliminated 22 teaching and staff positions and four sports programs, and also made cuts to teacher supplies. A proposal to pay two superintendent-level salaries was removed from the final draft of the budget.

“You cut programs that directly affect the kids in schools, the kids’ learning abilities, and you replaced it with salary for someone that’s doing nothing for us for a year,” Collins, the Selectboard member, said.

The board members were emphatic that they had made the right decision.

“I’m sorry that there are people that are in this profession that feel very insulted by the whole situation,” Russell said. “I will not apologize for the decisions we made; I know that is a very hard thing to accept.”

Christina Dolan can be reached at cdolan@vnews.com or 603-727-3208.